Originally Posted By: NYEngineer
My wife, my stepdaughter and my stepson all drive me up a wall. Here's why...
They're always too busy and in a hurry for me to check under their hoods. I've given up on my stepson. He thinks he knows better. He doesn't listen when I do say he needs this or that and he ends up stuck. Guess who gets to go get him.
Yesterday, my stepdaughter came out to run some errands with my wife. After a few trips back and forth, her Jeep became hard starting. She called me. I was wrapping up a mountain bike ride and said I'd be there within the hour. I return home, open the hood, check the battery. It was a Deka that I had installed in 2015. Terminals were grossly corroded. I said this is PROBABLY your whole problem. I cleaned the terminals, added some dielectric grease, Jumped it with my truck to get it going and checked the alternator voltage. Alternator was fine. I said drive it around a little and come back and let me check the battery. I have one of those Midtronics testers that does the battery equivelant of an EKG. She was gone five minutes. Comes back, shuts the car off, starts it. Shuts it off, starts it again. Shuts it off once more and tries to restart and gets click. Since she's a teacher in Queens, NY, I decided to just install a new battery. Can't have her getting stuck. I'm in the city all day and can't help.
Here's the part that kills me. My brother is a Deka dealer. If I had seen this coming, I probably could have gotten some inkling of a prorate on the original battery. Since it was Sunday and the warehouse was closed, I was forced to buy a battery at Autozone. Autozone battery was 175-. A new Deka would have been 125, my cost. Now, her old one became a five dollar core when all along, if she would have been a little patient, probably would have lasted two more years.
She learned from the finest. My wife is one of those people that drives with the dash all lit up until the car stops running and then complains.
At least the wife lives with me. Every once in a while I take her keys and make sure everything is ok.
It is hard to merge altruism and real life. There are people who either see it as a sign of weakness, or that you are a mark ripe to be taken advantage of. I think that breakdown of societal trust leads to this.
Another problem is what is received free of charge is often taken for granted, or monopolized. You see it all the time when a kid is given a decent car and they trash it, because they never had to work for it. You offer to lend someone a tool and then you end up doing the work for them: "Hey, you have a impact gun right? I need to put my snows on....."
You are a step-parent, even worse a stepfather. What happens if their dad finds out their other dad taught them how to wrench? You might have to throw down!
At the end of the day, unless you are a true altruist, you want to help people who will actually appreciate it. Without this feedback, you will become jaded and not help anyone. Choose your targets wisely.
My wife, my stepdaughter and my stepson all drive me up a wall. Here's why...
They're always too busy and in a hurry for me to check under their hoods. I've given up on my stepson. He thinks he knows better. He doesn't listen when I do say he needs this or that and he ends up stuck. Guess who gets to go get him.
Yesterday, my stepdaughter came out to run some errands with my wife. After a few trips back and forth, her Jeep became hard starting. She called me. I was wrapping up a mountain bike ride and said I'd be there within the hour. I return home, open the hood, check the battery. It was a Deka that I had installed in 2015. Terminals were grossly corroded. I said this is PROBABLY your whole problem. I cleaned the terminals, added some dielectric grease, Jumped it with my truck to get it going and checked the alternator voltage. Alternator was fine. I said drive it around a little and come back and let me check the battery. I have one of those Midtronics testers that does the battery equivelant of an EKG. She was gone five minutes. Comes back, shuts the car off, starts it. Shuts it off, starts it again. Shuts it off once more and tries to restart and gets click. Since she's a teacher in Queens, NY, I decided to just install a new battery. Can't have her getting stuck. I'm in the city all day and can't help.
Here's the part that kills me. My brother is a Deka dealer. If I had seen this coming, I probably could have gotten some inkling of a prorate on the original battery. Since it was Sunday and the warehouse was closed, I was forced to buy a battery at Autozone. Autozone battery was 175-. A new Deka would have been 125, my cost. Now, her old one became a five dollar core when all along, if she would have been a little patient, probably would have lasted two more years.
She learned from the finest. My wife is one of those people that drives with the dash all lit up until the car stops running and then complains.
At least the wife lives with me. Every once in a while I take her keys and make sure everything is ok.
It is hard to merge altruism and real life. There are people who either see it as a sign of weakness, or that you are a mark ripe to be taken advantage of. I think that breakdown of societal trust leads to this.
Another problem is what is received free of charge is often taken for granted, or monopolized. You see it all the time when a kid is given a decent car and they trash it, because they never had to work for it. You offer to lend someone a tool and then you end up doing the work for them: "Hey, you have a impact gun right? I need to put my snows on....."
You are a step-parent, even worse a stepfather. What happens if their dad finds out their other dad taught them how to wrench? You might have to throw down!
At the end of the day, unless you are a true altruist, you want to help people who will actually appreciate it. Without this feedback, you will become jaded and not help anyone. Choose your targets wisely.
